Thursday, April 3, 2014

What is in a
name … a rose by any other name would smell as sweet - the names of things do not matter, only what
things are !! ~ but perceptions do
matter …. in a Vadivelu comedy in film ‘Arya’ , Madhavan would tell a lie and a
group of people would start hitting Vadivelu … when asked one would say with
conviction ‘veluppa irukkaravanga poi sollamattanga’ [men who look white would
not lie] …For us, Office goers, the Office and the designation over there means
a lot – mostly people are identified by what they are tagged – the official
designation – a visiting card gains more weight with each promotion. Even if one does not consciously ponder on
these things, the credibility gets highlighted by the designation. It serves as a measure of growth and
development and ……….. more
responsibility !! In office environ,
many get perturbed not only by things not happening to them – but by happening
to thy neighbours.

In
Srivaishanvaite philosophy, naming the new born is very important. Periyazhwaar in his ‘Periyazhwaar
Thirumozhi’ (Nankam Pathu – Aaram
Thirumozhi) devotes 10 songs on the need to name the children after Sriman
Narayanan – those who are named after Maha Vishnu will be bestowed with all
goodness and their parents will not go to hell is a firm belief. That is for the believer.

Earlier I had posted on a
theory of ‘ Why having a name that's easy to pronounce could propel one up the career ladder !’ It is no little perception but a theory based
on the research, published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology,
which has found that it's not just in
the office that people with easy-to-say names do well, it also discovered that
it helped in the political world. According to researcher from University of Melbourne, people with a name that is
more easily pronounced have better prospects of climbing the career ladder, a
study as found. Research findings revealed that the effect is not due merely to
the length of a name or how foreign-sounding or unusual it is, but rather how
easy it is to pronounce. Whether we
accept the subtle bias or not, here is something more interesting based on an
article that appeared in Daily Mail on 28th Feb 2014 stating that
‘if the name is hard to pronounce’ – likely people would not trust them… simple
names make people seem 'familiar and less risky'

According to the news
feature, researchers at the University
of California, Irvine, found that people who speak English
trust strangers with easier-to-pronounce names; People less likely to believe
claims made by strangers with tricky names.
A previous study found people with easy-to-pronounce names are perceived
as more likable, more electable and more accomplished. Plenty of people are
guilty of quickly judging people based on their appearance or accent ~ and now
scientists have found that we trust strangers with easier-to pronounce names.
Simpler and more easily recognisable names make people come across as more
familiar and less risky to know, according to a new study. Simpler and more
easily recognisable names make people come across as less risky to know,
according to a new study ~ and children are more likely to trust a pretty face
!!

Scientists tested 32 four
and five-year-olds who were shown 12 photos of women aged between 18 and 29.
Both boys and girls tended to believe answers assigned to pictures of pretty
women, according to the study that was published in October last year. Lead
researcher Dr Igor Bascandziev, from HarvardUniversity in the US, said: 'When learning about the
world, children rely heavily on information provided to them by other people.
Researchers at the University of California, Irvine,
found that people who speak English trust strangers with easier-to-pronounce
names more than those with names that are more difficult to say– even when
those strangers are from the same country. The scientists created fictitious
pairs of names from different parts of the world, including the Middle East,
Asia and Europe, making sure that one name was easy to pronounce and the other
more difficult. They then examined people’s responses to the name pairs. In one
experiment, participants imagined they were tourists looking for a reliable
tour guide, while in another test, they were asked to decide how dangerous each
person on a list of strangers was, based on nothing but their name.

In each experiment,
strangers with easy-to-pronounce names were judged as being more familiar, more
trustworthy and safer,’ said Eryn Newman, a postdoctoral fellow in the
university’s Department of Criminology, Law and Society. So, according to the
study people with easily-pronounceable names enjoy a variety of benefits, according
to a number of scientific studies. They are perceived as more likeable, more
electable and more accomplished ~ more surprising is that the pronunciation of
names had effects that extended beyond the name.

Dr Newman explained that
the phenomenon isn’t confined to people’s names. ‘When we encounter new
information, how easy or difficult it is to process plays an important role in
all sorts of situations. For example, research shows people think that food
additives with easier names are safer than those with difficult names.’ She
thinks that the feeling of familiarity in the brain signals something we can
trust, but information that is hard to process, signals danger.

So, are you
looking for a good Nameologist ? …. ~ me ? - a strong non-believer of many things
and this ‘name theory’ sure would top my list…… makes a very interesting
reading though.